


Right Here, Beside Her

by sunsxleil



Series: Merry Christmas, I Love You [15]
Category: Carol (2015)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Watching Someone Sleep
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-18
Updated: 2020-12-18
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:53:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 587
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28151931
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunsxleil/pseuds/sunsxleil
Summary: Carol muses on the events that changed her life, on the risks she took one year before, and all the things that could have happened had her angel not chosen to keep her place right here, in Carol's life, in Carol's bed, beside her.
Relationships: Carol Aird/Therese Belivet
Series: Merry Christmas, I Love You [15]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2035672
Comments: 4
Kudos: 38





	Right Here, Beside Her

**Author's Note:**

> A short one today! Prompt from a little Google search where [this list](https://oneshotsandheadcanons.tumblr.com/post/167716040859/christmas-prompts) popped up. Hope you guys like it!

It’s been a year.

It’s early in the morning from the looks of things, sun yet to rise but moonlight washed over. Carol hears the traces of life waking up in far corners of the city, but overall, things still seem quiet. Well, as quiet as New York City can be—she doesn’t remember there being as much buzz back when she still lived in Jersey.

From the scattered city lights making their way into the bedroom, Carol watches her lover sleep soundly beside her. A year, it has really been a year. A year since she gave up custody of Rindy, a year since that trip West, a year since everything, really, and to think for a moment then she had been ready to give all this up.

 _This_. This that Carol can no longer imagine herself without. She raises a hand to push a few strands of Therese’s hair back, her fingertips lingering on Therese’s cheek. To think Carol had tried hard to imagine a life without her—and almost had it. If only she had played along, played the part of the regretful housewife back during the custody hearing, then she might have Rindy now, and no Therese.

That loss still hurt, but Carol is happier now than she could possibly be. And how couldn’t she? She is unapologetically herself every day, and her angel now rests easy in her bed, in her arms.

And oh, how lucky she is that her angel is in her arms now.

After her departure from the custody hearing, she had made her peace with the fact that perhaps asking for Therese to come back into her life was too much. Perhaps Therese wouldn’t even want to see her, and if that had been the case, Carol thinks, at least she had tried. At least she had reached out, one last time, before the big crash at the end where her heart shatters. It would have been a life with no Rindy, no Therese, and perhaps Carol might find someone else, but well.

Carol can’t wander too far into that future now knowing she does not have the capacity to devote her life to any other woman than Therese Belivet.

Carol kisses Therese’s eyelids, and pulls back to stare at the serenity in Therese’s sleeping face. What if Therese had never come to the Oak Room? What if Therese had decided a month in that she grew out of her love for Carol? What if, and Carol had only been thinking of this last month, Therese wakes up and realizes all the life she has left to live, and looks at Carol and says to herself she wants to experience more? Someone else? Someone closer to her age?

But Carol wakes up every day, and Therese is still beside her.

Therese, whose eyelids flutter open, though sluggishly. Carol chuckles. “The sun is barely up, dear.” Carol smiles. Anything—she would give anything to keep Therese at her side, today, tomorrow, forever. If Therese would have her. “Go back to sleep.”

Therese grunts. “Why are _you_ awake?”

Carol shakes her head. “Just going back to sleep. Now hush,” Carol says, and there’s that sleepy smile on Therese’s face, and Carol kisses it. “We need to get up early in the morning.”

Carol falls asleep with Therese’s lips on hers, and perhaps she imagines it, but in the last dregs of her consciousness, Carol feels Therese’s lips move against her own. It vaguely feels like Therese saying ‘ _I love you_ ’.

**Author's Note:**

> The prompt was: "It's 5am, go back to sleep."
> 
> Was a bit tired today, so it's a bit of a short piece more on the side of musing than an actual event. Also, I rewatched the movie today, and seeing how Carol took all those risks while knowing what could go wrong just made me imagine the level of disbelief and fear she would probably have even after Therese came to her in The Oak Room.
> 
> Anyway, all mistakes are mine, and I don't own the characters—Patricia Highsmith does. Hope you guys enjoyed that one too! Once again, happy Carolmas!


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